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I’m basically going to do three things in this post: take a look at the sizable number of “lopsided” early-season contests; compare Massey Ratings projected game scores with early lines for various games of interest; and make a list of the best opening weekend (and pre-opening weekend) matchups.

Why am I doing this? Well, why not?

Lines are courtesy of an offshore site to be named later.

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There are 136 contests in Weeks 0 and 1 that feature at least one Division I team. Among them are 44 FBS vs. FBS games; of those, 11 are games between Power-5 conference teams, 9 are Group of 5 matchups, and 24 are games in which a P5 team is playing a G5 opponent.

There are also 48 FBS vs. FCS matchups, 26 FCS vs. FCS contests, and 18 games in which FCS teams face non-D1 opposition.

Of those 136 games, 36 have an early-line spread of 30 points or more.

The breakdown of those 36 matchups:

FBS vs. FBS: 6

FBS vs. FCS: 18

FCS vs. FCS: 4

FCS vs. non-D1: 8

It’s not great that more than 26% of the D-1 games which take place prior to and through the Labor Day weekend are projected to be that one-sided. Of course, it could be argued that this is the best time for these matchups, given that the general football-loving public is starved for live gridiron action of any kind, no matter the blowout potential.

As of August 1, the largest point spread for any D-1 game in this time period is the Florida A&M-Arkansas contest on August 31, a Thursday night affair in Little Rock. The Razorbacks are favored by 51.5 points. Two games have 51-point spreads, Bethune-Cookman vs. Miami (the homestanding Hurricanes are favored, just to state the obvious) and an all-FCS matchup, Mississippi Valley State vs. North Dakota State (with the host Bison expected to prevail).

The biggest road favorite is Washington, favored by 30.5 points at Rutgers. Stanford plays Rice at a neutral site (Sydney, Australia); the Cardinal are 31.5-point favorites.

The other four FBS vs. FBS matchups with a spread of 30+ points: UTEP-Oklahoma (44 points, the largest spread in an all-FBS game), Kent State-Clemson (38.5 points), Georgia Southern-Auburn (35 points), and Akron-Penn State (33 points). To the surprise of no one, the home teams are all favored.

The other three FCS vs. FCS games with 30+ point spreads: Butler-Illinois State (36 points), Valparaiso-Montana (34 points; apologies to Adam Amin), and Delaware State-Delaware (33 points). Again, home teams are the favorites.

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In the table below, I’ve included every FBS/FCS game in Week 0 (eight games played on August 26, and one on August 27), and a sampling of contests from Week 1 (August 31 through September 4). Just to reiterate, not every D-1 game from Week 1 is listed.

The first nine games in the table are from Week 0.

Favorite

Underdog

Line

Massey

Differential

Colorado State

Oregon State

3.5

34-31

0.5

BYU

Portland State

32.5

44-13

1.5

Florida A&M

Texas Southern

1.5

26-24

-0.5

Jacksonville State

Chattanooga

6.5

28-26

4.5

Cal Poly

Colgate

7

35-31

3

USF

San Jose State

20

41-31

10

Stanford

Rice

31.5

38-7

0.5

Sam Houston State

Richmond

6.5

38-34

2.5

Hawai’i

Massachusetts

1

33-31

-1

Wake Forest

Presbyterian

39

35-0

4

Toledo

Elon

37.5

43-7

1.5

Georgia State

Tennessee State

18

38-17

-3

Arkansas

Florida A&M

51.5

52-3

2.5

Mercer

Jacksonville

21

42-21

0

Samford

Kennesaw State

7.5

38-30

-0.5

Towson

Morgan State

28

35-7

0

Oklahoma State

Tulsa

17

42-33

8

Ohio State

Indiana

20.5

31-17

6.5

Army

Fordham

15.5

40-24

-0.5

Eastern Michigan

Charlotte

12.5

35-27

4.5

Navy

Florida Atlantic

13.5

42-28

-0.5

Colorado

Colorado State

7

35-28

0

Clemson

Kent State

38.5

44-3

-2.5

Texas

Maryland

16.5

34-27

9.5

Oklahoma

UTEP

44

49-13

8

North Carolina

California

12.5

42-32

2.5

Villanova

Lehigh

6.5

28-22

0.5

Pittsburgh

Youngstown State

14

40-24

-2

North Carolina State

South Carolina

5.5

28-17

-5.5

Notre Dame

Temple

15

28-24

11

Georgia

Appalachian State

14.5

21-18

11.5

Michigan

Florida

4

24-20

0

Virginia

William and Mary

19.5

33-14

0.5

North Dakota State

Mississippi Valley State

51

52-0

-1

Texas Tech

Eastern Washington

16.5

45-38

9.5

Mississippi State

Charleston Southern

18.5

38-21

1.5

The Citadel

Newberry

30

37-7

0

Wofford

Furman

13.5

26-14

1.5

Gardner-Webb

North Carolina A&T

7

28-21

0

Baylor

Liberty

30

42-14

2

East Tennessee State

Limestone

28.5

35-7

0.5

Auburn

Georgia Southern

35

34-13

14

Air Force

VMI

31.5

41-10

0.5

Alabama

Florida State

7.5

33-21

-4.5

LSU

BYU

13

21-7

-1

Southern

South Carolina State

2.5

27-24

-0.5

Virginia Tech

West Virginia

4

29-26

1

UCLA

Texas A&M

3.5

25-28

6.5

Tennessee

Georgia Tech

3.5

31-32

4.5

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Odds (hey, a pun!) and ends:

Not listed: James Madison-East Carolina, which does not have a line at present for some reason. However, Massey projects FCS defending champ JMU to win the game 38-31.

Western Carolina’s season opener at Hawai’i also does not have a line (at least, not one that I could find), possibly because the Rainbow Warriors play a game at Massachusetts the week before.

The same is true for Coastal Carolina, which opens by hosting the aforementioned Minutemen.

Two teams in the table that are favorites (UCLA and Tennessee) are projected to lose by the Massey Ratings.

Massey projects several games to be considerably closer than the current lines, notably Appalachian State-Georgia, Maryland-Texas, Eastern Washington-Texas Tech, Temple-Notre Dame, and Tulsa-Oklahoma State.

On the other hand, Massey likes North Carolina State and Alabama even more than the offshore folks do.

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On his college basketball ratings website, Ken Pomeroy has something called ‘FanMatch’, in which “games are rated for competitiveness and level of play with a lean towards higher-scoring games”. It is a somewhat whimsical way to rate the potential watchability of individual games on a given night.

I’m going to do the same thing here. However, I am purposely not going to rate Newberry-The Citadel, which from my vantage point is the most watchable game of the Labor Day weekend.

Below is a listing of the Week 0/1 games that I consider to be the twenty best in terms of quality/competitiveness. I’ve created a secret formula to produce these game ratings; it is called “Tingle Factor”, or TF. The higher the TF, the better.

I realize that other observers have been more positive. Kendall Rogers of Yahoo! Sports stated that the committee made “few puzzling decisions”. Aaron Fitt of Baseball Americathought that the committee “did better this year than it has in years.”

I won’t argue with that — after all, the committee did do the most important thing right, which is get the correct teams in the tournament. This isn’t like last year, when Tim Weiser (the Kansas State AD) and his crew handed out bids to every Big XII outfit it could, only failing to pick Iowa State and Colorado because those two schools no longer field baseball teams. No, it’s a justifiable field. I actually correctly predicted the 64 teams in my previous post. Maybe I wouldn’t have taken these exact 64 teams myself, but there were no shocks, no outrages.

However, I get the sense that everyone is so relieved the committee didn’t completely screw up that they are overlooking the errors that were actually made. Let me list a few:

— Naturally, I’m going to complain about the ludicrous decision to slot The Citadel as a 3 seed in Columbia, while giving the College of Charleston a 2 seed and sending the Cougars to Myrtle Beach. The two schools had similar RPI numbers (32 for The Citadel, 26 for the CofC). More to the point, The Citadel won the regular season AND tournament titles in the Southern Conference. The Cougars finished second (by two games) in the regular season and went 1-2 in the tournament. Fitt did mention this anomaly in his BA post.

I am now not completely sure that The Citadel would have received an at-large bid had it failed to win the SoCon tourney. Maybe it would have, but I’m not too confident, and just that sense of the unknown completely justifies Fred Jordan’s decision to start ace pitcher Asher Wojciechowski in the championship game on Sunday. Imagine if Wojo had not pitched, The Citadel had lost, and then the Bulldogs had not received a bid. Jordan would have second-guessed himself for the rest of his life.

Also, while we all have to accept the geographic constraints the committee has when setting up regionals, it would have been nice to send the Bulldogs somewhere other than Columbia, which is starting to get very old (and I say that as someone who lives in Columbia). Why not flip The Citadel with Elon or Oregon State? There wouldn’t be any more trips by airplane that would have had to be made. Another option would have been to flip the 2-3 seeds in the Columbia and Myrtle Beach regionals.

— California is a 2 seed. Now, I think Cal belonged in the tournament, but as a 2? Also, the Golden Bears will play North Carolina in the first round, another bubble team, so Oklahoma, one of the weaker 1 seeds, gets the weakest 2 (in my opinion) and one of the weaker 3s.

I’m guessing the committee couldn’t quite figure out how to slot Cal as a 3 seed without causing another 3 seed travel issues, and so bumped the Bears up to a 2. It still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The committee could have made Oregon a 2 and Cal the 3 in the Norwich regional, which would have been at least marginally better, but maybe the Ducks are going to wear some crazy new Nike duds when they travel to Connecticut and the committee wanted more buzz in its northeastern regional. I don’t know.

— The geographical decisions really cause some inequities in the matchups. Georgia Tech is a national seed, but gets Alabama as its 2 seed; just to give you an idea, GT had an RPI of 11, ‘Bama 12 (and the Tide had a strong finish to its season). TCU isn’t a national seed, but gets Baylor (35 RPI) as a 2 seed and Arizona (one of the last teams in the field) as a 3.

I already mentioned Cal in the Oklahoma regional; Arizona is similar in that I don’t think the committee could figure out where to stick the Wildcats, and so sending them to Ft. Worth became a default selection. Maybe they were just trying to cut TCU a break for slotting the Horned Frogs (potentially) against Texas in a super-regional.

Of course, RPI isn’t necessarily indicative of quality (and I should mention Arizona actually had an RPI of 24), but it’s used as a crutch so often by the committee that when it isn’t, its absence is glaring.

— I don’t get the geographic thing for super-regional matchups. You aren’t talking about that many more airplane flights even if the expected matchups actually occur, and sometimes they don’t anyway. Why make TCU (a contender for the last national seed) have to play a super-regional at national 2 seed Texas? Another team that had an argument for a national seed was Cal State Fullerton; at least with UCLA as the #6 national seed, that potential matchup is more fair (if also more convenient).

Really, though, if South Carolina (the other team in the national seed mix) is close to being #8, it shouldn’t be in a bracket opposite #4 Coastal Carolina. It should be in the bracket opposite Georgia Tech (the team that did get the final national seed). Would setting Oklahoma up to play Coastal Carolina be so terrible? TCU-Louisville? Florida State-Texas?

I think it’s time for the top teams to be seeded 1-16.

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Well, that’s enough carping. I’m just ready for the regionals to begin.

This will be a huge week in the college baseball world, obviously, with conference tournament action all over the country (along with some key regular season games in the Pac-10, which does not have a league tournament). I decided to break down the potential field and see what teams are in, what teams are out, and what teams have work to do. Admittedly, I’m not the only person who does this — you can read fine efforts from the folks at Baseball America and Yahoo! Sports, just to name two — but I’m the only person who will do it on this blog. So there.

I’m going to approach this from the point of view of a fan of a “bubble” team who wants to know the ideal scenario by which his team can make the field, by the way. The Citadel, while not a true “lock”, is probably safe at this point (and well it should be). However, I would like to see any potential roadblocks to the NCAAs removed. In other words, I’m for the chalk.

RPI numbers mentioned below are as of May 23 and are from Boyd Nation’s website. For the uninitiated, the regionals include 64 teams, 30 automatic qualifiers (by winning their respective league bids) and 34 at-large selections. Three leagues do not hold post-season tournaments, so their regular season champs get the auto bid. Several smaller conferences have already held their post-season events and so we know what teams will be representing those leagues.

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There are 15 leagues that will definitely only have one team in the field, the so-called “one-bid leagues”. Dartmouth, Bethune-Cookman, Bucknell, and San Diego have already qualified from four of these conferences. The other eleven leagues are the America East, Atlantic 10, CAA, Horizon, MAAC, MAC, NEC, OVC, SWAC, Summit, and WAC. That leaves 49 spots for the other 15 leagues.

(There are also a few independents, along with the members of the Great West, a league that does not get an automatic bid, but none of those teams are serious candidates to make a regional.)

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There are several leagues that will also be “one-bid” conferences, unless the regular season champion doesn’t win the conference tournament, and even then the favorite might not be good enough to get an at-large bid anyway. Bubble teams should definitely be rooting for the top seed in these leagues, just to make sure no spots are “stolen”. These leagues are as follows:

— Atlantic Sun – Florida Gulf Coast University dominated this conference. With an RPI of 40, FGCU probably stands a decent (not great) shot at getting a bid even if it loses in the A-Sun tourney. This is unfamiliar ground for the Eagles, as the A-Sun tourney will be their first post-season experience in Division I.

If you’re wondering why you have never heard of Florida Gulf Coast University, it’s because the school (located in Fort Myers) has only existed since 1997. The baseball team has only been around since 2003, first as a D-2 program and now at D-1. It’s an amazing story, really; there are a few more details to be found here. It just goes to show you how many good baseball players there are in Florida, and for that matter how many young people there are in Florida (FGCU has an enrollment of over 11,000).

— Big 10 – Michigan has an RPI of 65, which isn’t really that great, and didn’t even win the regular season title (Minnesota, with a losing overall record, did). It’s barely possible the selection committee will throw a bone to the all-powerful Big 10 and give a “snow bid” to a second team from the league, but I doubt it. Incidentally, the Big 10 tournament will be held in Columbus, but Ohio State did not qualify for the event.

— Big South – Coastal Carolina will almost certainly be a national seed. If the Chanticleers win the league tourney, the Big South is probably a one-bid league. Liberty has an RPI of 51 and has beaten no one of consequence. Bubble teams should definitely root for CCU.

— Conference USA – Rice will be in the tournament. The only other team with a shot at a potential at-large bid is Southern Mississippi, but with an RPI of 67, it’s likely the Eagles need to win the C-USA tourney. Otherwise, it could be bad news for the Minnesota Vikings.

— Missouri Valley – Wichita State will be the top seed at the MVC tourney, tying for the regular season title with Illinois State but holding the tiebreaker. If the Shockers (RPI of 56) don’t win the league tournament, they could get an at-large bid, but I don’t see it. Still, you have to watch out, given the tradition of Wichita State, that the committee doesn’t give a “legacy” bid.

— Southland – There are three teams (Texas State, Southeastern Louisiana, and Northwestern State) that are semi-viable at-large candidates, but I suspect all of them really need the auto bid. Texas State won the regular season title, has an RPI of 50, and probably would be the one best positioned for an at-large spot, but I don’t think that would happen. Bubble teams should pull for Texas State anyway, just to make sure. Southeastern Louisiana has an RPI of 48 but dropped all three games of its final regular season series to Northwestern State, at home, and thus finished third in the league.

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Let’s look at the remaining “mid-majors”:

— Big East – Louisville should be a national seed. Connecticut has had a great year and may wind up hosting (but as a 2 seed). Pittsburgh doesn’t have a great RPI (53), but has a fine overall record, will get the benefit of the doubt for its power rating because it is a northern school, and is probably in good shape. The Big East appears to be a three-bid league. St. John’s has a good record but an RPI of 74.

— Big West – Cal State Fullerton will host and could be a national seed. UC Irvine should also make it out of this league (which does not have a post-season tournament). I don’t see anyone else getting in. It’s a two-bid league.

— Mountain West – TCU will probably host a regional. I think New Mexico (RPI of 42) is getting in, too, although an 0-2 MWC tourney could make the Lobos a little nervous. The MWC should get two bids.

— Southern – The Citadel (RPI of 37) won the regular season by two full games, winning its last seven league games (and its last eight games overall). It was the only school in the SoCon to not lose a home conference series, and went 8-4 against the schools that finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th in the league, with all of those games being played on the road.

What The Citadel was not good at was winning on Tuesday. It was 0-7 on Tuesdays until winning at Winthrop in its final Tuesday matchup. On days other than Tuesday, the Bulldogs were 37-13.

Regionals are not played on Tuesdays. The selection committee is aware of this, and probably aware that The Citadel has a top-flight starting pitcher (potential first-round pick Asher Wojciechowski) and a very good Saturday starter (6’7″ left-hander Matt Talley) who pitch on Fridays and Saturdays.

That’s a lot of verbiage to say that, even if the Bulldogs go 0-2 in the SoCon tourney, I expect them to be in the NCAAs. They better be.

The College of Charleston should be in the NCAAs too, with an excellent record and RPI (24). The only other team with a shot at an at-large bid out of the SoCon is Elon (RPI of 43), which tied for third in the league (but is the 4 seed in the conference tourney). The Phoenix had a better record against the ACC (6-1) than in the SoCon (19-11). The SoCon should get at least two bids, and possibly three.

— Sun Belt – Florida Atlantic and Louisiana-Lafayette will be in the NCAAs. Then there is Western Kentucky, with an RPI of 36 and some nice non-conference wins (Texas A&M, Texas State, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Kentucky). However, the Hilltoppers finished 16-14 in league play, tied for sixth, and will be the 8 seed at the Sun Belt tournament. Can an 8 seed out of the Sun Belt get an at-large bid? I’m not sure about that.

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That leaves the four leagues that will send the most teams. The easiest of these to evaluate, in terms of at-large possibilities, is the SEC. The other three are a bit more difficult to figure out.

— Southeastern – Alabama’s sweep of Tennessee in Knoxville locked up a berth in the SEC tourney (and the regionals) for the Tide and also knocked the Vols out of both events. LSU took care of business against Mississippi State, and then got the benefit of Kentucky’s meltdown against cellar-dweller Georgia. The Wildcats were eliminated from the SEC tourney (and likely the NCAAs) after a 20-0 loss in Athens on Friday night. Ouch. The SEC, which some were suggesting could send ten teams to the NCAAs, will send eight — the same eight teams playing in the league tournament.

— Atlantic Coast – Six teams are locks (Virginia, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech). Then there are the other two teams in the league tournament (Boston College and NC State) and one that isn’t (North Carolina).

I think it’s possible that two of those three get in, but not all three. North Carolina didn’t even make the ACC tourney, but has a really good RPI (21) and just finished a sweep of Virginia Tech. The Heels actually tied for 8th with BC, but the two teams did not meet during the regular season, and BC wound up prevailing in a tiebreaker, which was based on record against the top teams. That’s also UNC’s biggest problem — it was swept by all three of the ACC heavyweights (Virginia, Georgia Tech, Miami). It also lost a series to Duke, which is never a good idea.

On the other hand, UNC did beat NC State two out of three games (in Chapel Hill). The Wolfpack has an RPI of 49, not quite in UNC’s range, thanks to a strength of schedule of only 77 (per Warren Nolan). By comparison, UNC has a SOS of 15 and BC 16, typical of most ACC teams (Miami has the #1 SOS in the nation; UVA is 9th, Clemson 11th).

The records for the two schools against the top 50 in the RPI are similar. Both are better than Boston College (8-20 against the top 50). BC, which is only 29-26 overall and has an RPI of 45, would be a marginal at-large candidate but for its quality schedule and, of course, its sweep of NC State in Raleigh.

What NC State does have to offer for its consideration is series wins against UVA and Georgia Tech. That’s impressive, but it’s probably not enough to get the Pack an at-large berth on its own.

I suspect that UNC will get in, despite not making the ACC tournament, but it will be close. BC and NC State both need to do some damage in the ACC tourney, which is a pool play event, meaning each team will play at least three games. The Eagles and Wolfpack each need to win at least twice. UNC fans need to root against both of them, because even though at-large bids (supposedly) aren’t doled out by conference, a run to the ACC title game by either BC or NCSU probably would move them ahead of the Heels in the at-large pecking order.

— Big XII – Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas A&M are locks. Kansas State (RPI of 35) is on the bubble but is in good shape. Baylor (RPI of 41), Texas Tech (RPI of 54, and now with a .500 overall record), and Kansas (RPI of 52) are also in the running for an at-large bid, although the latter two schools hurt themselves over the weekend and are in now in serious trouble. Both must have good runs in the Big XII tourney (which, like the ACC tournament, is a pool play event).

Baylor, Kansas, and Kansas State are all in the same “pod” for the Big XII tournament, so they may be able to separate themselves from each other (in a manner of speaking) during the tourney. How that will affect the total number of bids for the Big XII is hard to say. It wasn’t a banner year for the league, but I could see as many as six bids. I think, barring some upsets in the league tournament, it’s going to be five.

— Pac-10 – Arizona State, UCLA, Washington State, and Oregon are locks. Arizona (RPI of 19) probably is too, although the Wildcats would do well not to get swept next weekend at Oregon State.

There are nine teams in the conference still fighting to make the NCAAs. In this league, there is only one punching bag — Southern California. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Washington has the worst RPI of the contenders (55) and is only one game over .500 overall. The Huskies play Southern Cal in their final series, which will probably help Washington’s record but may not help its NCAA case. Oregon State, as mentioned, hosts Arizona and may need to win twice. The Beavers (with a solid RPI of 32) did get a much-needed win on Sunday at Arizona State to improve their conference record to 10-14.

Stanford (RPI of 44) looks to be in good shape; the Cardinal host Arizona State next weekend and likely need to win just one of the three games (and may be able to withstand a sweep). On the other side of the bay, however, things are not as promising, as California (RPI of 39) has lost seven straight and finishes the season at Oregon needing to show the selection committee a reason to believe.

At least seven teams from the Pac-10 are going to make the NCAAs, and possibly eight. I don’t think all nine contenders are going to get the call, though.

— Champions from leagues likely to get just one bid, but that do have bubble teams (but no locks): 4 (the leagues in question are the A-Sun, Big 10, MVC, and Southland)

— Bubble teams that are in good shape (6): Arizona, Kansas State, UC Irvine, New Mexico, The Citadel, Pittsburgh

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That’s 55 teams in total. If there are no upsets (hah!), then nine other bubble teams will make the NCAAs. I’ve got them listed in two groups; the “decent chance” group, and the “need some help and/or no conference tourney upsets for an at-large” group.

I’m posting this prior to the Portland-St. Mary’s game, for the record…

This is my first projection to include seeding and placement, and it’s possible there is an error or two mixed in, because the first go-round is always the toughest. At any rate, here is how I see the NCAA tournament as of right now (projected automatic bids in all-caps):

As of now, North Carolina has the top overall seed in my projection, based on finishing first in the ACC, while none of the other three #1 seeds won their respective conference titles. Louisville will be probably be battling Pitt and UConn for two available #1 seeds in the Big East tournament. I think Memphis has a shot at a #1 if it wins the C-USA tournament and Oklahoma bows out early in the Big XII tourney.

The brackets are set up as follows: South vs. West, East vs. Midwest

I had a lot of trouble deciding how the committee would place teams. I think they are going to want to have at least one “draw” in the Portland and Boise sub-regionals, so putting Washington/UCLA in those sites seemed logical, and Gonzaga will probably be in one of them as well. It’s a bit of a tough draw for Missouri in particular, but after the first round nobody is protected. I don’t like putting Villanova in Philly — that struck me as not being in the spirit of things — but if the Wildcats get a 3 seed or better I can see it happening.

Every team on seed lines 8 and up is safe for the tournament, and the 9 seeds are all in decent shape. The bubble action starts on line 10 and goes through line 12, with some automatic bids interspersed here and there.

Last six in: South Carolina (last in), Penn State, Providence, New Mexico, Michigan, St. Mary’s

South Carolina, to be perfectly honest, is a bit of a placeholder; I have the Gamecocks in the field based on my belief that at least three SEC teams will be in the tournament, no matter what happens. As of right now, I give South Carolina the edge over Florida and Auburn for the third bid from that decidedly mediocre league. It is possible for the SEC to get four bids, depending on how things shake out in that league’s tourney, as well as tournaments across the country.

At this point Siena and Utah State would be advised to win their respective conference tournaments. I don’t see either grabbing an at-large bid if it needs one.

St. Mary’s is the toughest call in terms of evaluation/figuring out what the committee will do. If the Gaels lose to Gonzaga in the WCC final, then I think they will get an at-large bid. Otherwise, I don’t see it happening.

I have three Big East teams in the top five of my S-curve, but it is unlikely that conference winds up with three #1 seeds. UConn and Pitt still have to play again in the regular season (at Pitt), and then the Big East tournament will have a culling effect of sorts. Memphis is also a strong candidate for a #1 seed. Oklahoma may not win the Big XII regular season after losing two games due to Blake Griffin’s concussion, but I don’t think that is going to cost the Sooners much, if anything, in terms of grabbing a #1.

Kansas and Missouri both being on the 3 line after this weekend’s blowout win for the Jayhawks gave me pause, but that’s just the way it is. Washington has made a strong push, with nine wins in its last twelve games (six of its last seven). LSU is going to run away with the SEC regular season title, and even in a bad year for that league, it’s hard to see the Bayou Bengals not being rewarded with a top 16 seed. If LSU chokes in the SEC tourney, though, that could change.

Marquette stays where it is, and will continue to do so, until it is demonstrated that Marquette is significantly affected by the season-ending injury to Dominic James. I think it’s almost certain that his injury will have a negative effect on the team’s performance over time, but losing a competitive game to Louisville doesn’t really make it obvious.

I think you have to rate Florida State ahead of Clemson at this point. The Tigers are only 6-6 in their last 12 games, which includes a loss at Virginia and a home loss to Virginia Tech, in addition to the sweep at the hands of the Seminoles. Butler has eleven “true” road wins, including a victory at Xavier. In other respects its profile does not really scream “6 seed”, though.

Gonzaga is going to play USC Upstate and its 290 RPI before beginning play in the WCC tournament. It will be the sixth time Mark Few’s men have played a team with a current RPI of 276 or worse. Four of those are conference games against Loyola-Marymount and Pepperdine. Two other teams in the WCC also have RPIs below 200. Keep that in mind, but not to hold against Gonzaga. Just wait until we get to the bubble teams and one league in particular…

Most of these teams can just about book their tournament reservations at this point. Syracuse is essentially a lock, and the rest probably need just one more win. You could make a good argument that ASU and the ‘Cuse should be rated ahead of Utah. Tennessee separated itself from the other SEC bubblers with its win on Sunday against Florida (completing a sweep of the Gators), thanks in large part to separating itself from its league brethren before the season started with its strong non-conference schedule.

Wisconsin played a very good schedule (currently rated sixth nationally). Its biggest non-conference scalp came at Virginia Tech, which will come in handy, along with sweeps of Michigan and Penn State and a victory over Ohio State. The Badgers next play Minnesota, and need to win to avoid being swept by the Gophers. A win in Minneapolis won’t be easy, but if Wisconsin gets it and beats Indiana in its home finale, it should be set. Even a loss to Minnesota won’t be fatal, although the Badgers may want to win a game or two in the Big 10 tourney just to be safe. The average RPI of the teams Wisconsin has defeated is 104, which is a very impressive number.

BYU is 8-3 on the road this season, and also has a neutral-site victory over Utah State. None of the road victories was a really good one, but on the other hand, BYU played a representative schedule and only has one serious flaw on its resume, a sweep at the hands of UNLV. There are worse teams to have been swept by, though. I’m not overly enthused by the Cougars’ profile, but they’ve done what they needed to do, which is why the RPI is 22, and BYU will make the NCAAs unless it badly stumbles down the stretch. I will give BYU credit for not scheduling a lot of games against 200+ RPI teams.

Ohio State beat Butler at home, Notre Dame in Indianapolis, and Miami (FL) on the road (where it got lucky, frankly). Those results and no bad losses will go a long way to getting an at-large bid, but the Buckeyes are only 8-8 in the Big 10 (including getting thumped over the weekend by Purdue) and probably need two more wins. As it happens, they close with games at Iowa and home to Northwestern.

UNLV has the aforementioned sweep of BYU, a win over Utah, and most importantly, a win at Louisville. The Rebels have also lost at Colorado State and at TCU, and as a result find themselves in fifth place in the Mountain West. I think UNLV has the profile to get an at-large bid and become team #3 ouf of the MWC, but it needs to win its last two (including at San Diego State, which would get the Rebels at least a tie for 4th in the league), and then not fall apart at the Mountain West tournament, particularly since that tournament is in Vegas this year.

Creighton has won ten straight games and heads into the Missouri Valley tournament with the #2 seed (losing a tiebreaker after tying for the regular season title). The Blue Jays don’t have a win on their resume that will make you stand up and take notice, but one thing Creighton apparently did was try to figure out what other mid-majors might be good this season, and then proceeded to schedule them. In addition to the Bracketbusters game against George Mason, Creighton has also played Dayton, New Mexico, Arkansas-Little Rock, Oral Roberts, and St. Joseph’s, winning all of those games with the exception of a last-second lost to UALR. I would like the profile a little better without the losses to Wichita State and Drake, but 25 wins while playing in the nation’s ninth-rated conference is worth serious consideration when doling out at-large bids.

Minnesota has a neutral-site win over Louisville, a win at Wisconsin, and a win over Illinois in one of the Big 10’s notorious “first to 40 wins” contests. The Gophers are only 5-7 in their last twelve and really need a couple of wins down the stretch to feel secure. They have two home games remaining, both of serious bubble interest, as they play Wisconsin and Michigan. The Gophers are the quintessential major-conference bubble team.

Texas A&M has excellent computer numbers (RPI of 35). The Aggies have a neutral-site win over LSU and home wins over Texas and Arizona. The problem for A&M is that it is only 7-7 in a Big XII that no one is favorably comparing to the ACC or Big East. Texas A&M is building momentum, though, with four straight wins, and it figures to be five after a game at Colorado on Wednesday. The Aggies finish the regular season with a home game against Missouri and a chance to play its way into the NCAAs.

Before getting to South Carolina, let’s review Group 6, which has six teams, and then the rest of the hopefuls which as of right now aren’t in my tournament projections:

Oklahoma State is a lot like Texas A&M; I have a hard time separating them. They split two meetings. Oklahoma State has a one-game lead over A&M in the conference standings. The Aggies beat LSU and Arizona; the Cowboys have neutral-site wins over Siena and Rhode Island. Both beat Texas. Okie State has won five straight and finishes with Kansas State at home and Oklahoma in Norman.

Miami (FL) and Arizona are similar in that they need to take care of business. The Hurricanes have two very winnable games to get to 8-8 in the ACC; then Miami probably needs to win a game in the ACC tournament. Arizona is 8-8 in the Pac-10 and is poised to get the fifth bid from that league, but needs to beat Stanford and either Cal or its first-round opponent in the Pac-10 tournament (which may in fact be Cal).

Maryland and Michigan have some similarities as well. Both have played difficult schedules. Both have major out of conference victories (North Carolina and Michigan State for the Terps; Duke and UCLA for the Wolverines). Of course, Maryland beat Michigan earlier in the season, which is another solid OOC victory for the Terps. Maryland is 7-7 in ACC play; Michigan is 8-9 in the Big 10, with a game at Minnesota left to conclude its regular season. I think Maryland needs to finish 8-8 in conference, and possibly (but not necessarily) win an ACC tourney game. Michigan might be good to go if it can get that win against Minnesota (which would have the added benefit of hurting the chances of another bubble team). Otherwise, the Wolverines may have to do some damage in the Big 10 tournament.

Earlier I noted that Gonzaga had played six teams with RPIs of 276 or worse. Four of them are in the Bulldogs’ league, which means Gonzaga had no control over the scheduling of those games. Because of these games, the average RPI of the teams Gonzaga has beaten this season is 160.

The average RPI of the teams Florida has defeated is 179. Kentucky? 173. South Carolina? 172.

Florida has actually played seven teams with RPIs worse than 276, all as part of its non-conference slate. The Gators have 21 wins, but has beaten only two teams in the top 75 of the RPI — Washington (in Kansas City) and South Carolina.

The Gamecocks have not much more heft to their resume, with a sweep of Kentucky to go with a win over Florida and a victory at Baylor, all as part of a schedule not much stronger than that of the Gators.

Kentucky has swept Tennessee and beaten the Gators, and has a neutral-site win over West Virginia. Kentucky also has six wins against teams with RPIs of 299 or worse, dragging down its computer numbers, which are also affected by home losses to Mississippi State and (especially) VMI.

Just to give you an idea of how the SEC teams compare with other teams in terms of scheduling wins, the average RPI of the teams defeated by some of their fellow major conference bubblers:

It’s rather striking when looked at that way. It shows why Georgetown is still a bubbler despite all its losses, why Penn State has work to do (despite road wins over Michigan State and Illinois), and why Notre Dame is essentially done, especially after losing at home by 17 to Villanova. Georgetown got its win over Villanova, and Providence still has a game to play against the Wildcats.

It also shows why the SEC resumes are less than the sum of their parts. Florida and Kentucky face each other in what some are calling a “play-in” game; I would suggest it should be called a “play-out” game, with the winner still having work to do in the SEC tourney.

Rhode Island has played a lot of “close but no cigar” games, including a three-point loss at Duke, a one-point loss at Providence, and a two-point loss to Xavier. The Rams have won 10 of their last 11 games and will get a look from the committee if they go deep in the A-10 tournament. If you don’t take into account the close losses, though, URI’s profile isn’t quite good enough, and I’m not sure you should take into account close losses.

As to what the committee will do if St. Mary’s makes the WCC final and loses to Gonzaga, I really don’t know. I suspect the Gaels, with a healthy Patty Mills, are at-large quality. The resume doesn’t really bear that out, however.

I don’t think the remaining non-BCS candidates have much of a shot at an at-large bid. Of the group, I like Davidson the best, but I don’t think Stephen Curry and crew can absorb another loss, even if it would be to one of the better SoCon teams, like The Citadel or the College of Charleston. UAB had a chance to make a statement against Memphis; instead, Memphis made the statement. The Blazers do have a win over Arizona, but have not really been dominant against the non-Memphis C-USA teams.

Siena’s loss on Friday to Niagara probably torpedoed any at-large hopes. New Mexico, San Diego State, and Utah State all have less-than-imposing resumes with little to offer in the way of significant non-conference wins. Utah State does have a win over Utah, and probably has the best shot of an at-large among the western non-BCS schools.

There is still a lot of action remaining in the regular season. Not unlike the weather, if there is something you don’t like concerning the bubble picture, just wait — things will change.

Yesterday’s USA Today included a story titled “Spartans hope brutal schedule gets them ready for primetime,” which began:

One of the hallmarks of Tom Izzo’s coaching career at Michigan State has been to embrace a rugged non-conference schedule…

Izzo is at it again this season. Michigan State will play 10 games against teams that reached last year’s tournament, including defending national champion Kansas and this season’s probable No. 1, North Carolina. The Spartans will also play Texas and could meet Georgetown, Tennessee and Gonzaga.

“I just never want to be on Dick Vitale’s ‘cream puff’ scheduling list,” Izzo joked. “But many years ago we took on the ‘any time, any where’ theory of playing people and it’s kind of stayed with me.”

Izzo is not a masochist. He believes MSU can not only survive this schedule, but flourish against it.

Now, I like Tom Izzo. He seems to be one of the very few bigtime college basketball coaches who may actually be a nice guy. And Michigan State’s non-conference schedule does have some tough teams on it, as mentioned in the article. However, when I saw that headline, I immediately did a double-take, because I was well aware that on that same non-conference schedule is a game in East Lansing against one of the toughest teams of all…The Citadel.

For the uninformed, The Citadel did not make the NCAA tournament last season. No, the Bulldogs did not win the Southern Conference tournament, and were not deemed worthy of an at-large bid, possibly because of a 6-24 record that included just two wins over Division I opponents. I quickly checked to see if a McDonald’s All-American had accidentally signed a letter of intent to play for The Citadel this season. Nope.

Of course, you can have a cupcake or two (The Citadel had an RPI of 334 last season; there were 341 Division I teams) and still have a very difficult schedule. However, the Spartans are also playing Idaho (last season’s RPI: 299), and Alcorn State (336, an RPI worse than The Citadel’s!), both at home, and have a road game against IPFW (RPI of 218). The Spartans also have a game at Oakland (which I suspect might be a “home away from home” situation) and a home game against Bradley, which should be decent but not that big a test for MSU.

The rest of the non-conference schedule, admittedly, is impressive. Michigan State plays Maryland in the first round of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, a tournament that features several other teams that should be good this season, including Gonzaga, Tennessee, and Georgetown. However, the article suggests Michigan State “could meet Georgetown, Tennessee and Gonzaga” when that’s not the case; the Spartans could only face two of them at most. Michigan State plays Texas in Houston, and the Spartans also drew North Carolina in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge (a game that will be played in Detroit) . MSU concludes its non-conference slate with a home game against defending national champion Kansas.

Michigan State will play twelve non-conference games. Five are against teams it should defeat easily, and a sixth (Bradley) is a home game against a middle-of-the-pack mid-major. The other six games include only one matchup (Texas) in which Michigan State will be the road team, and even that game is not on the opponent’s home court. Michigan State will play three games on a neutral site in Orlando, with the first of those coming against Maryland, a team that is projected to finish seventh in the ACC. North Carolina is favored by many to win the national title, but last year’s champs, Kansas, lost seven of the nine players that made up its rotation. I’m sure the Jayhawks will have plenty of talent replacing those players, but the Spartans will have the opportunity of playing them at home and in early January, before those players have had a chance to mesh with each other. Considering Michigan State won 27 games last season and has three starters returning (along with most of its regular rotation), I think the advantage lies with the Spartans.

That’s a fair schedule, and not one deserving of any criticism. It strikes me as balanced. I like the fact that Izzo is going on the road (at least the Ft. Wayne trip is a true road game; as I said, I’m not sure about that game in Oakland) against smaller schools. The UNC, Texas, and Kansas games should be a lot of fun, and the tournament in Orlando should be excellent — I’m looking forward to watching it. The Spartans will be well-prepared by the time the Big 10 season rolls around.

It’s not a brutal non-conference schedule, though.

You want to see a brutal non-conference schedule? Just take a gander at what Fang Mitchell has put together for his squad this season (and seemingly every season). Coppin State’s coach has set up a slate with nine road games and three neutral-site games in Hawaii: at Purdue, at Kansas, at Richmond, at Loyola (MD), at Dayton, at Wisconsin, at Syracuse, the Rainbow Classic (Colorado is the first-round opponent), at Oklahoma, and at Missouri. Coppin State actually mixes in a road conference game in there, so the Eagles will play thirteen games before their first home contest on January 10.